The Education Authority (EA) has a requirement to procure a Strategic Partner, to provide services including a School Management System (SMS) for Nursery, Primary, Post Primary, Special schools and EOTAS centers. The Strategic Partner will be required to deploy, support and manage a modern architecture, technical infrastructure and secure services for schools. These services will improve the learning experience of our young people, supporting teaching through technology, develop skills for the future and support the EA and its educational stakeholders to improve educational outcomes. The education service will deliver high levels of reliability, stability and performance and reduces the burden and risk on the Education Authority and school staff with regard to the security, technical setup, configuration, maintenance and support of any element of the future service. The EA is seeking a fully integrated and interoperable solution which will provide anywhere anytime access to, and associated support for, the EdIS services accessible by school staff, pupils, parents and authorised stakeholders. The School Management System will be a key component of the overall solution to be delivered by the Strategic Partner, providing a centralised master record for school users which will enable the sharing of accurate up-to-date student data for educational purposes and for access to technology services delivered through the EdIS programme. Under this procurement the successful Supplier will be required to support EA's social value objectives. Accordingly, contract performance conditions and award criteria will relate, in particular, to social value. The estimated total value set out in Section II.1.5 represents EA’s estimate of the total potential value of the contract over its full duration, including (without limitation): the transition of services from the existing supplier; EA’s option (subject to necessary approvals and at its discretion) to extend the term for a period of 2 years; and certain optional additional services which EA may request the successful supplier to provide under the contract (as set out in further detail in the procurement documents).